Thread: Court asked to revive suit over tuition for illegal immigran

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Posted on Wed, Sep. 27, 2006

Court asked to revive suit over tuition for illegal immigrants

JON SARCHE
Associated Press

DENVER - An attorney for a group of students at Kansas colleges asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to revive their lawsuit challenging a 2004 state law granting in-state tuition to some illegal immigrants.

A trial judge in Kansas had dismissed the lawsuit, saying the students did not face a "concrete and imminent" injury. The students appealed to a three-judge panel of the Denver-based 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The plaintiffs are U.S. citizens from outside Kansas paying out-of-state tuition to attend schools there. Their suit claims the state is violating federal law by offering some illegal immigrants a benefit that some U.S. citizens cannot get.

The case is being closely watched by several national organizations who say the outcome could affect similar laws in eight other states: California, Illinois, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Washington.

Attorney Mike Delaney, who represents the state, told the appeals court the trial judge was correct in ruling the students had no right to sue. He said some legal immigrants and citizens have qualified for in-state tuition under the law, but the plaintiffs did not.

Kris Kobach, an attorney for the plaintiffs, argued that the simple fact that the students cannot qualify for in-state tuition under the law even though they are U.S. citizens is injury enough to give them that right.

"The discrimination is imposed by the barrier itself, and removing that barrier removes discrimination, and that is adequate remedy," he said.

Kobach said the students also have a right to sue because the state violated federal law by offering in-state tuition to some illegal immigrants but denying it to some citizens from other states.

Neither the lower court nor the appeals court has considered the merits of the Kansas tuition law, only whether the students have a right to challenge it.

Higher education officials have said at least 240 students have qualified for in-state tuition in Kansas under the law. Last year, in-state tuition for full-time students was $2,081 per semester, compared to $5,069 for nonresident full-time students.

Peter Roos, an attorney for two Hispanic groups helping defend the law, told the appeals court judges that the students do not have a right to sue because erasing the law wouldn't help them.

"Getting rid of the law does not move these plaintiffs one iota closer to getting in-state tuition," he said. "The barrier isn't this law, it's the state's basic residency law."

The judges did not indicate when they would rule.

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The case is No. 06-3064.

"Getting rid of the law does not move these plaintiffs one iota closer to getting in-state tuition," he said. "The barrier isn't this law, it's the state's basic residency law."

This does seem to be the crux of the matter, residency. But if you think about it illegal immigrants are not suppose to be residing here in the first place. Isn't that the law but it just isn't being enforced?

Illegal immigrants aren't even legal residents of the country, so how in the world can they be legal residents of an individual state? This just doesn't make any sense at all!